Cut adrift from Melbourne after two games when the club declared him not to be good enough Gardiner missed 1906 and then moved to Carlton where he became one the league's most dangerous spearheads and won two premierships.

In 1918 Gardiner joined the Army in the last stages of World War I, but wasn't required to go to Europe to fight. Nevertheless it was the end of his VFL career.

Gardiner's brother Jack also played for the club and his father John was a champion player for the Blues in the 1870s.